Get Taken Seriously

3. be pro-active

A good businessman will take a problem and fix it to streamline his company. A great businessman will see the problem before it becomes one and avoid it in the first place. This will save the company time, money and countless headaches.

So don't wait for something to break before fixing it. If you see something at your company that could be improved upon and made more efficient, take the initiative and get things done. Don't be afraid to come up with a plan and shake things up. In business there is no tomorrow, procrastinators make bad businessmen.

2. do your homework

There is nothing worse than showing up to a meeting or having a discussion with someone, and not knowing business basics. If you were a general manager in the NBA, it would follow that you would know your team's roster inside out. If you named your guards and accidentally named a guard from another team, how credible do you think you would be in the eyes of those around you?

My point is that whatever your business, the first thing you should do is learn the basics of it, not just what is necessary for your job. Learn about the competition, how their products differ from yours, who the players are, what future plans are, etc. Take the time to read your company's annual report or get the inside scoop from higher-ups if you work in a private company.

1. get results

You can posture as much as you like, but at the end of the day what really counts is results. This is where the talkers get hurt bad. Sure, they can deliver some great lines, but what they forget is that the only line that is important in business, is the bottom line.

If you shake things up, and save or make a ton of money for the company, then you are golden. A boxer that throws 200 punches but doesn't land any is useless. The idea is to throw the good punches and make sure they hit their target.

If you can do this fast enough, hard enough and often enough, then you'll knock out the competition and rise to the top. Which reminds me: what have you done lately? If the answer is nothing, then you'd better get cracking before someone else does.